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Slam Dunk highlights holiday hoops tourneys

Concord's Robert White (left) fouls Mount Pleasant's Richard Caldwell on Dec. 15. The top-ranked Green Knights will be one of six Delaware teams playing in the upcoming Slam Dunk to the Beach boys basketball showcase at Cape Henlopen High.(Photo: WILLIAM BRETZGER/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo

Let’s cram in as many basketball games as possible until we have to hit the books again.

The annual holiday hoops tournaments will crank up at the end of this week, filling the period between Christmas and New Year’s Day with ankle-breaking crossovers, rainbow 3-pointers and spectacular dunks.

Slam Dunk to the Beach headlines the festivities for boys, as the national showcase returns to Cape Henlopen High from Sunday through Dec. 29. It will be a who’s who of high school basketball, as five teams currently in the Maxpreps.com Xcellent 25 will be making an appearance in Lewes: No. 2 La Lumiere (Indiana), No. 8 Roman Catholic (Philadelphia), No. 15 Roselle Catholic (New Jersey), No. 18 Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia) and No. 20 The Patrick School (New Jersey).

Four teams ranked among Delaware’s top six also are part of the field. No. 1 Mount Pleasant, No. 3 Sanford, No. 4 Dover and No. 6 St. Elizabeth will join Appoquinimink and host Cape Henlopen in challenging some of the nation’s best, and each other.

A couple of all-Delaware matchups – Sanford vs. Dover at 9 p.m. Sunday and Mount Pleasant vs. St. Elizabeth at noon Dec. 29 – could shuffle the state’s rankings. Sanford also will jump into the deep end against La Lumiere at 9 p.m. Dec. 28.

The event will feature six three-game sessions, starting at noon and 6 p.m. each day. The gym will be cleared between sessions, and a separate admission will be charged. Tickets are $15 per session, $28 for a one-day pass or $58 for a three-day pass. Tickets may be purchased at the door, online at www.slamdunktothebeach.com or by calling (800)-441-7223 and pressing 3.

The Diamond State Classic girls tournament will celebrate its 25th anniversary at the St. E Center, with the action running Sunday through Dec. 30.

The Raiders will be the First State’s only entrant in the top bracket this year, but plenty more will participate. No. 9-ranked William Penn, Wilmington Friends and St. Mark’s will be part of the New Castle Insurance Cup. No. 5 Caravel and Padua will be in the First State Orthopaedics Cup. And No. 2 St. Elizabeth, Howard and Caesar Rodney will compete in the Delaware Cup.

Tickets will be available at the door all four days, and proceeds will benefit the B+ Foundation, Special Olympics Delaware and other local charities.

Germantown Friends (Pa.) will meet Charter of Wilmington at noon Dec. 29 in the West Gym. Brandywine will take on Wilmington Christian at 1 p.m. in the East Gym. Then Friends will host Springside Chestnut Hill (Pa.) at 2 p.m. in the West Gym, and Newark Charter will take on Woodbridge at 3 p.m. in the East Gym.

On Dec. 30, the losing teams from the West Gym’s first-day games will meet at noon in the West Gym. Then the losing teams from the East Gym’s first-day games will meet at 1 p.m. in the East Gym. The West Gym’s championship game will be up next at 2, followed by the East Gym’s championship game at 3.

Middletown will host a boys tournament Dec. 28-29. The first round will be Newark vs. Lake Forest at 5 p.m. Dec. 28, followed by Middletown vs. Tatnall. The consolation game will be at 5 p.m. Dec. 29, with the championship game at 6:30.

Finally, the Governor’s Challenge tournament will run from Saturday through Dec. 30 at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, Wicomico High School and J.M. Bennett High School in Salisbury, Md.

Boys teams from Polytech, Delmar, Caesar Rodney, Conrad, Sussex Tech and Sanford are scheduled to participate. Also, Sanford’s third-ranked girls team is in the field and will open against Mardela (Md.) at 2 p.m. Saturday at J.M. Bennett.

Rounding it up

• Delaware Field Hockey Player of the Year Kate Walker of Mount Pleasant has been named to the Harrow Sports/National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-American second team. Tess Bernheimer of DIAA champion Cape Henlopen is part of the All-American third team.

• The eighth annual Hockey for a Cause event, benefitting the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens with intellectual disabilities, will be held Jan. 2 at the University of Delaware’s Gold Ice Arena. Action will start at 4 p.m. with a game featuring alumni from Salesianum against alumni from St. Mark’s. Then the current varsity teams from Sallies and St. Mark’s will follow with an exhibition game. Tickets ($5) will be sold at the door.

• State Representative Harvey R. Kenton and former boxer Dave Tiberi will be the annual honorees at the Blue-Gold All-Star Basketball Games, to be played March 19 at the Bob Carpenter Center.